Personal Space
by Planetar
Summary: The Queen of Omega is about to learn Shepard lives by much the same rules as she does.


**A/N: **after finishing Omega for the last time, I figured one thing(that I, admittedly, suspected for a long time already)... I **really **don't like Aria. So this fic is, in character, explanation of why that is so. To all Aria fans out there(and I realize there's quite a few of them), you might want to skip this one, since it's just about as big a "Fuck you!" to Aria as I could come up with.

As always, I would like to thank my wonderful beta reader, Yestare70, for all the ideas and help with this.

* * *

The battle was over and Petrovsky's body laid in front of her on the table where Aria had squeezed the life out of him. Tabitha didn't like the intel on Cerberus and the Illusive Man dying with the general, but if she was honest with herself, she would have probably done the same. Not the chocking part, but she guessed the difference between strangulation and a bullet in the frontal lobe of one's grey matter made little difference to the owner of said brains.

Wiping her brow, she reflected on the past couple of hours. Most of it was a blur of gun shots, screams of the adjutants and explosions. Her number of slaughtered assault troopers and engineers must have climbed high enough to make even Wrex jealous. The final battle in Afterlife had been quite taxing, with Cerberus controlled adjutants and seemingly limitless number of troopers attacking her. Frankly, it was a big wonder she was even alive. And she saved Aria.

Aria... everything that has happened was because of her. Tabitha wasn't too happy with the asari's plan in the first place, but Aria had promised all kinds of contributions to the war effort. Ever the pragmatist, the commander decided she could put her feelings aside for the sake of the galaxy. Liara was none too happy to be left behind, but her bondmate was nothing if not understanding.

Of course, after everything they'd been through ever since landing on Omega, Tabitha was seriously considering sending everything to hell and walking away. But it would only take a few more moments. Surely she could hold for a little longer...

Deciding to get it over with as soon as possible, she took a deep breath and turned away from the corpse and started walking towards the asari. When she got closer, Aria spoke up.

"Shepard... I never thought I'd enjoy having a partner."

A cold shiver of disgust ran down Tabitha's spine. But before she could say anything more, she found herself grabbed by the shoulders and as soon as that, her lips crashed with Aria's. Eyes wide with surprise, it took a second before her brain registered what was happening. When everything fell into place, she was quick to push the asari away from herself, taking one step back herself to put more distance between themselves.

"What the fuck was that Aria?!"

There it was again. That smug smile she hated so much.

"Don't pretend you didn't like it."

Red hot rage washed over the human. This bitch really believed what she said. She really believed she was entitled to taking whatever she wanted. That was a step too far. Before she could stop herself, the Paladin on her belt was in her hands, pointed at the crime boss.

The widening of Aria's eyes was almost comical. It lasted only moments however, before the asari collected herself. When that happened, it was replaced by a mocking expression.

"What do you think you're doing Shepard?"

"You really think you're something, don't you Aria?"

And just like that, the mocking expression was replaced by one of shock. The venom in her voice must have been obvious enough, if this was the reaction she achieved. But before the asari could reply, Tabitha continued. She would not be stopped now.

"You embody every bad stereotype of the entire asari race. With your the I'm-better-than-you-are attitude. You always have to have the last word in the argument and you always have to be in the right. You have lived for what, thousand years and yet you have an emotional maturity of a five year old human child! And to top it of, you're pretty damn incompetent. How many times have I had to save your ass now? Remember that incident with Archangel? You likely wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me to bring you news about those mercs planning an attack. And now this? You suck Aria!"

The venom in her words was obviously real enough, if the lengthening shadows on Aria's face were anything to go by. The smugness was disappearing from her countenance, only to be replaced by rage. It was enough to give Shepard an idea for one last twist of the metaphorical knife. As the smile was leaving Aria's face, it felt like it was being magically transported on her own.

"And you aren't even all that good looking. If I may make a suggestion, try wearing a smile instead of a frown every now and then. Might make you look better." She waited for a second before continuing. "Though I suspect a plastic bag might work better there."

The rage on Aria's face reached its peak, becoming almost palpable... before disappearing just as quickly, only to be replaced by a cruel smirk.

"Bold words, coming from somebody shacking with the pureblood slut..."

Her words were cut off by a gunshot, followed by a flaring pain in her shoulder. Bringing her hand to the wound was an automatic response and the queen of Omega was shocked when it came away slick with her own blood. All things considered, it was a good thing Shepard was using armor piercing ammunition, but right now, Aria was above such things as caring for small mercies.

"You shot me?" The wide eyed surprise was quickly giving way to hot blooded rage. "You shot me! You bitch!"

"I suggest you watch the flapping of your gums, or the next one will be going between your eyes."

The cold exuding from Shepard was almost palpable, as was the menace in her words. All of it combined was enough to set Aria on edge.

"You wouldn't dare..."

The glow of the scars on Tabitha's face deepened, as did the embers in her eyes. When the corners of her lips curled upward in a predatory smile, lacking any humor, it was enough to give even the stoutest of hearts a moment of pause. All of this combined gave a very unnerving picture to behold. Aria wasn't familiar with the human concept of devil, but the image before her was still enough to unsettle her.

"Aria, the rachni are history once again, thanks to me. The skies above Rannoch are a cold grave to seventeen million quarians because of me." A moment of pain crossed the scarred features of the commander's face and she hoped the asari before her didn't notice it. She quickly collected herself. "I shot the crewmember that was with me since the very beginning, since the dumb bitch would rather side with Udina than me!"

_Though, to be fair, I actually enjoyed that part quite a lot... but she doesn't need to know that._

"So if you really think that ventilating your pea brain is a problem for me, well..." The end of the sentence was left hanging in the air, but the implications were clear enough. Aria had to admit to herself, the woman before her was capable of doing it and what was worse, getting away with it.

"So what's stopping you?" The words were gritted through clenched teeth. Despite her best effort to staunch the flow of blood, some of it still managed to seep between her fingers, staining the front of her vest lilac.

"You owe me... and you owe me big. As much personal satisfaction shooting you would bring me... we just can't afford to loose everything you have to offer. Not now."

Lowering the pistol, the commander continued. "And I plan to collect. So don't get cute and think you can get away from it, or I **will **come back and I **will **shoot you."

Stashing her sidearm at her belt, the human then turned around and started walking away, without saying anything else, leaving the asari to stew in her own rage.

And that rage was growing hotter by the second. Never before in her life had Aria been so humiliated. To let a slight like this go unchallenged would be to invite all kinds of attention to herself... none of it good. No, there was only one possible solution, if she wanted to keep any sort of respect amongst the Omega gangs.

Pulling her own sidearm and aiming it at the retreating woman's back, she couldn't resist herself.

"You're weak Shepard! That's going to cost you!"

But before the trigger could be pulled, Shepard extended her hand towards Aria, palm open. The last thing the asari saw before being hit by a paralytic shocks of electricity was the light of an omni-tool.

The pain was exquisite, causing her to drop the pistol to the ground as all she could do was twitch powerlessly. The electricity coursing through her body, setting her nerves on fire sent her screaming, but it was blessedly short. In only a couple of second, the spasms ceased, causing the asari to sag to the floor, boneless. Vaguely she was aware of her bloodied hand falling away from the gun wound, letting the blood trickling to the floor slowly.

The relief of unconsciousness came scant moments later.

Only meters away, Shepard let her hand drop back to her side, extinguishing her omni-tool.

"Weak... strong... I'm the gal with neural shock."

She found Bray a short distance away from the nightclub. Despite every negative experience with batarians so far, this guy seemed all right. And even though the smile he flashed her when she approached him reminded her very much of the sharks back on Earth, there was no malice in it. She found herself offering a small smile back.

"Get me out of here Bray. I've had enough of this rock to last me a lifetime."


End file.
